Children of the Truth

Today we are so conscious of different people having different perceptions about things that we seldom talk of the truth as if it were a definite open and closed matter. We want to know where people are coming from on any issue. We usually finish up agreeing to differ.

For the people of the New Testament, it was simpler: Jesus was the truth. To follow Jesus and live faithfully in him and his ways, was to walk in the truth. The truth was not something that had to be struggled with. It had to be lived.

The truth was whatever was right in the light of Jesus’ life and teaching. To be a child of the truth, therefore, is to live as Jesus wants you to live. Of course, the surrounding culture was very alien, and frequently hostile. Clear boundaries existed. It was fairly straight forward then to know what the truth was although it was frequently costly to do it. What seems strange to us was that the more they lived the truth, the more they understood what it was. Doing the truth came first: truly knowing it followed as a consequence.

It is still a fact that when you follow Jesus faithfully and sincerely you get a better handle on truth. You see the world as it really is. You understand problems with greater clarity. Solutions which are loving, honest, sincere and good come more easily. Jesus still comes to us first in the demand for obedience. Intellectual understanding follows.

Bro David Yelulani (Banket, Zimbabwe)